U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,827 teaches a taper method and apparatus generally known as a “bow taper” which is particularly suitable for taping the top and/or bottom flaps of a carton closed and operates on the principal of pulling a tape from a roll and then with the carton in position (flaps in closed position) is activated to apply the tape to the carton by means of wipe down rollers etc. and wherein the wipe down rollers and cutoff knife for severing the tape from the source are all actuated by the same mechanism.
The term “bow taper” is used herein to broadly describe this type of taper wherein a ribbon of tape is pulled from a source to provide a span of tape and then the tape is wiped onto the case being sealed.
The recent internet phenomenon of selling discrete items that have to be shipped to the consumer has generated a whole new packaging niche requiring a highly compact and flexible packing cell. Existing technologies and solutions have failed to supply a suitable, compact and practical self contained case packing work cell particularly suitable for internet type marketing and shipping. Automated warehouses have expensive sophisticated infrastructures to pick a warehouse object, but the case packing end is still done manually. In most cases the product which may involve an almost infinite variety is delivered on totes or carriers to a packing station where operators choose a case size, pack the product and then fill it with void filler (Styrofoam peanuts or equiv), seal it and then label and palletize the case. Obviously this necessitates the ability to process products with large rapidly changing carton size requirements.
With such a variety of product to be packaged, packing cannot be done automatically. Currently there are several semi automatic packing systems available that are based on a small case erector and a length of conveyor between the erector and an automatic case sealer which is used to provide the packing area. The problem with these is that the operator has to lean over the box conveyor to reach the product which has to be located on the opposite side of the box conveyor. As well, the operator has to walk considerable distance to lift the finished (closed and sealed) case from the discharge conveyor located downstream from the case sealer and palletize it and then walk back to the packing station.
Another severe limitation of prior art tape applicators is that they require a power source to move the case to be sealed to and through the tape sealing mechanism. This usually involves a powered belt or belts to power the object. The current invention does not require relative movement of the object which is having tape applied to it, and can apply tape to a variety of objects that are static.
The bow taper device taught in above referred to U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,827 (the teaching of which is incorporated herein by reference) is the original version of tapers of the same family (bow tapers) as the bow taper of the present invention. This original version requires that the all the wipe down rollers (leading (left) and trailing (right)) and the cutoff knife all be activated by the same mechanism which limits its utility as the mechanism to actuate this large assembly required considerable space and does not permit the building of an efficient case packing station since product cannot not be easily be delivered close to the case to be packed. Also, the arrangement of U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,827 does not allow for the operating elements to be made modular so that the taping system could be constructed as a modular system and built into various types of tape application machinery. This prior art arrangement also makes adjustment of the device for different length objects to be taped difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,726,613 B1 issued Apr. 27, 2004 to Sewell discloses a versatile packaging station that may be incorporated into the present invention